Meghan Markle reveals she is in her ‘chapter of joy’ at Oprah Winfrey’s book club event

She may have her detractors on this side of the pond but the Duchess of Sussex is not short of friends in her native California.

And her smile at an event over the weekend gave a clue of how much she was enjoying being with them.

Meghan, 43, was one of the speakers at Oprah Winfrey’s book club, one of the launch evenings for a book shop called Godmothers, which is close to the $21 million Montecito mansion she shares with Prince Harry.

The event, which was taking place on the eve of the second anniversary of the Queen’s death, was attended by actor Marco Leone, astrologer Dr Jennifer Freed and psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson, all of whom highlighted the duchess on their Instagram stories.

Meghan said: “I’m looking at this time as my chapter of joy.”

“The more you are able to look at your life and really, truly recognise and be able to be grateful for your life - you have to be grateful for all aspects of it.

“My intentionality is to enjoy this chapter and be able to love through every piece of this as best we can.”

The crowd appeared to be lapping it up with Ms Jackson describing the duchess as one of the evening’s “light-filled speakers”.

Besides the appreciative audience, there were plenty of other reasons for that smile on the duchess’s face.

Not only was her own children’s book The Bench being promoted in the store but her husband’s explosive memoir Spare was displayed proudly on its “hometown heroes” shelf.

Talk show host Winfrey, 70, has been close friends with Meghan for years.

In 2021 she sat down with the Sussexes for a TV interview in which they aired a series of allegations about the Royal Family which led to the late Queen’s famous comment: “Recollections may vary.”